SGD::Decay
by Chris7221
Summary: Three years after the end of the Ori War, the Asgard are dying. One final attempt to solve the genetic degradation plaguing his race has left them infected with a deadly disease. Their only hope for a solution lies a galaxy away in Pegasus, with the last Lanteans and a rumoured splinter group of Asgard. A new oneshot set in the SGD alternate universe.


SGD is back! Sort of. SGD New Brunswick is a series of short stories set in the SGD universe. The first of these stories is Decay, set a few years after the conclusion of SGD and focusing on the Asgard. I'm not sure if these stories will be in chronological order or not.

* * *

Three years after the end of the Ori War, Earth had become a very different place. If there was one thing about that world, it was that things moved fast. Much had changed, and the world would be unrecognizable to anyone from before the fateful day Anubis attacked the planet.

Unfortunately, the change had not all been positive.

Technology had made life better for many, but limited availability was ripping open divides between classes and nations. In some cases, the old order had been upset. In some cases, it was magnified. In all cases, many were unhappy with it. While British aristocrats and American industrialists enjoyed holodecks and anti-ageing treatments, Brazilian farmers fought against government attempts to retake the jungle and newly poor Emiratis struggled to survive in their once-beautiful cities.

There was a lot to look forward to in a rapidly connected, newly spacefaring world, but not all shared in it.

Earth had pulled together during the dark days of the Goa'uld attack and the Ori War, but as soon as the galaxy returned to a semblance of stability things began to fall apart. Nationalism was on the rise, and old tensions were flaring up again. The AESF was being cut back, with many participating nations starting their own independent programs.

It was a stretch to say the progress made in the past years was being turned back, but Earth certainly wasn't headed toward the bright future many had looked forward to. Perhaps such a result was inevitable. They were still too young.

Although the situation on Earth was concerning for Supreme Commander Thor, he had other concerns on his mind. The Asgard were dying. The genetic degradation problem that threatened his people for so long was finally killing them.

Solving the genetic degradation problem had been their priority for thousands of years, yet their own research had yielded only temporary reprieves. Despite their advancement, the Tau'ri were still far from advanced enough to even begin to understand the situation. Some of the knowledge they had collected helped, but they were still living on borrowed time.

In a last ditch effort, they had made a radical attempt to reverse the genetic damage, and at first glance it had worked. Then they began to fall ill. The attempt had given then an incurable disease. Before, they had years. Now they had weeks.

Their last hope was the Pegasus Galaxy. A small group of Lantean scientists had been discovered a few years prior, There were also rumours of lost Asgard in the galaxy, though even if that were true he doubted they could be of any help.

Thor had been aboard his flagship, the recently refitted _Samantha Carter_ , on an extended mission when the tragedy had begun. Unlike most of his people, he had not yet switched to a new, flawed body, as his ship did not yet carry the necessary equipment to create one. He was still healthy for the time being. In a year or two, his current body would degrade to the point of uselessness and he would die.

The High Council had determined that Thor and his ship would be the ones to travel to the Pegasus Galaxy. With a three-fingered hand, he pushed a control stone forward and sent the _Samantha Carter_ into hyperspace. He would save his people or die trying.

* * *

Lantea had become a busy world in the years after the Ori War. Atlantis, of course, stood proud in the middle of the ocean. It was the primary Tau'ri outpost in the Pegasus Galaxy, now holding tens of thousands of military, scientific, and diplomatic personnel. Most were Tau'ri, but the Asgard, Travelers, and even the Hebridanians had a presence on the city. On the mainland was the Athosian colony as well as several others- refugee camps in all but name.

Sitting half an ocean away from Atlantis was a second city-ship, smaller with fewer towers. It was also far newer, originally built by the Asurans thousands of years after their creators had left the galaxy. Now, it was the home of the three hundred or so Lanteans left in the galaxy.

In a flash of blue light, the diminutive form of an Asgard and the imposing form of a Valkyrie appeared in the gateroom of the city.

"Supreme Commander Thor," a dark-haired man in the cream-coloured uniform of a Lantean greeted. He turned to the suited warrior. "And you must be Gairwyn."

"Luthan," Thor reciprocated. "I assume you have been informed of our situation?"

"I have. On behalf of the Lantean High Council, welcome to Aquarius," Luthan said before turning and leading them out of the gateroom. The Asgard followed with the awkward gait of his people, Gairwyn gliding serenely along beside them.

"I do not wish to offend, but I had been expecting to meet Councillor Moros," Thor mentioned.

"Myrddin, as he wishes to be called now, has largely retired and is considering Ascension once again. I cannot say I fault him; he has served honourably in many capacities for a very long time," the Ancient scientist explained, leading them down a corridor. "I did consult him, and he informed me simply that genetics was never his area of expertise."

"I understand. Have you made any progress?"

"I am afraid we are nearly as powerless to help your people today as we were so long ago," Luthan informed apologetically. He waved his hand in front of a door control and led them into a well-equipped lab. "We had some ideas on how to slow the genetic degradation, but this disease is something else entirely."

"There is nothing that can be done?"

"I have some ideas, but they are not promising. However, there is another avenue worth exploration." He picked up a tablet off his work table and handed it to the Asgard. "Looking at these drive signatures. These are Asgard. I am sure of it- there are other Asgard in this galaxy. If they've solved it-"

Thor interrupted him. "If we can find them. If it will work with us. If they have solved it. If they are Asgard at all. I do not believe this will prove worthwhile."

"The signatures match Asgard drives from the time of the Lantean-Wraith war," the Lantean scientist explained. "We didn't think to look until now, but your own records show that a small group left for Pegasus around that time. If they're still around, they _must_ have found some way to solve the cloning problem."

"Are your other ideas promising?"

In a very Tau'ri gesture, the Ancient scientist sighed and shrugged.

"I am still skeptical," Thor acquiesced, "However, if this is the only viable path to a solution, then we shall investigate. Do you know their location?"

* * *

By correlating the movement of hyperspace signatures over time, Luthan had managed to track the alleged Asgard to a world known as M6H-987 to the Tau'ri. It was a snowy world, listed in the Ancient database as not worth bothering with. Perhaps that was why the lost Asgard had chosen the world- if that was who they truly were.

Three ships loitered in orbit. As soon as the _Samantha Carter_ dropped out of hyperspace, they moved to intercept.

"Is this the Lost Tribe?" Gairwyn asked. It was more out of habit than anything else. Reacting to her thoughts, the HUD inside her suit informed her that the ships were a near-match for a very old type of Asgard ship and there were Asgard lifesigns aboard them.

They had found the Vanir.

Almost immediately, the smaller ships opened fire. Though they had been upgraded, the highly outdated ships were no match for the much more modern _Samantha Carter_. Their orange energy bolts pelted the carrier's shields to no effect.

Thor would have sighed if he was biologically capable of doing so. With a gentle push of a control stone, he brought his ship's weapons online and fired. Although the Vanir ships attempted to evade, it was of little use. Precisely aimed energy bolts lanced through the Vanir's shields and destroyed their weapons systems with minimal collateral damage.

He hailed the ships. "Unknown Asgard vessels. This is Supreme Commander Thor aboard the _Samantha Carter_. I do not intend to bring harm to your ships or your people. However, there are urgent matters we must discuss, including your inexplicable aggression."

"They will not respond," Gairwyn said.

"No," Thor replied. "They did not want to be discovered."

"Illegal research?"

"It is likely," Thor admitted.

"Is there anything on the planet?" Again, the results of a scan appeared in her HUD.

"There is an Ancient facility on the planet with Asgard lifesigns inside. It is shielded from transporters," Thor observed. "I will beam you as close as possible, once you are ready. Please remember that if there are Asgard on the planet, we must endeavour to preserve their lives."

"Understood." Gairwyn braced herself for the drop. "I am ready."

* * *

In a flash of light, Gairwyn appeared on the planet, ten thousand metres above the surface. She immediately began to fall before thrusters and anti-gravity units in her suit automatically kicked in and turned the freefall into controlled flight. She dove toward the planet's surface before pulling up and zipping over the cold tundra below.

Although Gairwyn was genetically modified and wired with cybernetics, her brain was for the most part left alone. Despite her conditioning, she still felt the incredibly thrill of flying over the surface at the speed of sound with only her thin battlesuit between her body and the outside world.

Gairwyn's suit was controlled by thought, and the flying controls felt like an extension of her body. She pulled back, slowing from supersonic to fast highway speeds in the space of a few seconds. The Ancient outpost was visible now. Her suit computers picked out a spot to land, and she dove toward it. With another mental command, a small silver projectile exploded from the back of her suit and slammed into the outpost, blowing a good-sized hole in the wall.

It wasn't quite big enough, but her suit was designed to take the impact. She hit hard, breaking away the parts of the wall that were still in her way. She then decelerated again, going from flight speed to a fast run and slamming down onto the floor.

It wasn't her best landing, but it wasn't her worst, either.

She had landed in a hallway, built in the distinctive style of the Ancients. It branched off into a side passage beside her, and went about twenty metres before forking into two other corridors. There was a slight breeze she couldn't feel as the warm, slightly higher pressure air inside rushed out the whole she had made.

A trio of Asgard were waiting for her. Unlike every other member of the race she had encountered, they wore full-body exoskeletons that were approximately human sized. Her suit's scan was complete in a split second. The exoskeletons were inferior even to the Aegis suits used by the Tau'ri, let alone her own highly advanced battlesuit.

Gairwyn's plasma blasters had a range of settings ranging from "stun human" to "obliterate city". Following her suit computers' recommendations, she selected a lower setting and leaped forward into the air. Before the Asgard could react, she was above and behind them, discharging a perfectly aimed bolt of plasma into each of their suit's power sources. They crumpled to the ground, immobilized.

Another suited Asgard came around the corner. She had been expecting him and had her weapons trained before he had rounded it. She was about to pull the proverbial trigger (her blasters were also thought-controlled) before an amplified voice interrupted, "Wait!"

Gairwyn kept her plasma blasters trained on the exosuit-wearing Asgard. "Explain your actions."

"You are not Thor," the Asgard stalled. "Nor are you Asgard at all."

Another Vanir approached from her rear. Without taking her eyes off the Asgard in front of her, she threw her left arm back and put one energy blast into each of his armoured legs, sending him to the ground.

"I am an agent of the Asgard," Gairwyn explained curtly. "You attacked the _Samantha Carter_ and myself without provocation. You must answer for that."

"We took measures the High Council would not approve of to continue our race," he answered simply. "We assumed that you had finally arrived to arrest us. Perhaps it was foolish to resist, but we were as determined to fight now as we were so long ago."

"Were?"

"Your presence here and your unwillingness to kill indicates that either the cloning problem has been solved or that it has reached a critical state," the Asgard explained. "In either case, there is little to be gained from resisting. I will lower the transport shield if you will grant me an audience with Thor."

A message appeared in Gairwyn's HUD. She told the Asgard, "An audience will be granted."

* * *

Seconds later, they both appeared on the bridge of the _Samantha Carter_. Gairwyn stood between Thor's shielded command throne and the new arrival, just in case.

"I have scanned your facility." Thor told the Vanir, a tone of disapproval in his voice. "There is sufficient evidence to convict your group of very serious crimes. However, that is not my primary concern at the moment."

"You were unable to solve the genetic degradation problem," the Vanir surmised. "It has reached a critical state."

Thor did not reply, instead bringing up a screen of data indecipherable to anyone but a fellow Asgard.

The Vanir glanced at the data for only a moment before coming to a conclusion. "It is too late. Your attempt was admirable, but it cannot have worked. If you had asked earlier, we may have had a temporary solution. This disease that has resulted cannot be stopped by any method known to us."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes."

"I was afraid of this."

"There is an alternative," the Vanir suggested. "Allow us to continue our research. We are not affected. Though our situation is poor, but there is still hope, especially if you turn your resources over to us."

"That is beyond consideration," Thor told him, taken aback by his counterpart's arrogance. "It is my duty as Supreme Commander to bring you to justice for your crimes, even if it is among my final actions."

"Then our race will die out." It was a statement, not a supposition.

"So be it." Thor beamed him to a holding cell where the other Vanir were already located before taking the carrier into hyperspace, leaving the rogue Asgard and their experiments behind.

* * *

Once the _Samantha Carter_ was in a stable orbit around Lantea and the Vanir had been placed in secure cells on the surface, Thor and Gairwyn beamed down into the gateroom of Aquarius. This time, there was nobody there to greet them, though a few of the Lantean personnel working in the control room gave him polite nods. Thor remembered the way to the lab, and wasted no time proceeding to it.

Luthan was still there, working on a piece of equipment he could not identify. "Supreme Commander Thor. You have returned. I am sorry you were unable to find what you were looking for."

"Have you reviewed the data on the outpost?" he asked simply.

"I have, and it is intriguing. Once the _Tria_ returns from Avalon, we will investigate," the Lantean scientist told him. "What will become of the Vanir?"

"They will be brought to trial if a trial is possible. If it is not, they will be turned over to the Tau'ri," Thor answered. He asked, "Have you made any progress on an alternative solution?"

"Perhaps it is inevitable that advanced races must eventually leave their physical bodies behind," Luthan mused. Thor knew what he meant as soon as he said it. "A time will come when we have gone so far that the bodies we evolved with are simply no longer sufficient and we must look for alternatives."

"We cannot Ascend," Thor told the Lantean scientist. "You are aware of that."

"I speak not of Ascension, Supreme Commander," he corrected. "We have created a synthetic body capable of holding an Asgard mind."

"This is the reason for your previous misdirection," Thor surmised. "You did not have a solution."

"It is a solution," Luthan insisted. He pressed a button on his tablet, and what appeared to be an Asgard body appeared on a pedestal before them. "Perhaps not a desirable solution, but it is a solution."

Thor read the readouts below the body. Disapproval crossed his face. "It is a Replicator."

"It is far more similar to a human-form Replicator than your existing body, despite appearances," Luthan admitted. "It is nearly identical to the units often referred to as Asurans, but with no higher functions. Instead, your mind will be transferred in to fulfill that role."

Thor made up his mind immediately. "I refuse."

"The transfer process is almost identical to your normal one and it is equally safe-"

"That is not why."

"There is no other option, Supreme Commander," Luthan insisted. "I admit that I have my own misgivings. We had investigated similar technology long ago, but never put the theory into practice. Please, this is the only way for your race to continue."

Thor argued, "We knew the end would eventually come."

"Yet it has not. You have already transcended your biology via cloning and mind transferrence," Luthan reminded him. "This is simply the natural next step down that path. You have reached beyond the limits of your biology. It is time to abandon it entirely as so many of my people have."

"I will consider it." Thor stated before leaving.

* * *

"You will take command of the _Samantha Carter_ when I am gone," Thor told Gairwyn as he left the lab. "You may join the Tau'ri, if you wish."

Gairwyn had been waiting outside, but had the entire conversation through her suit sensors. As they headed toward the gateroom, she protested, "You cannot give up so quickly. There is a way to save yourself and your people."

"A way which does not bear consideration," Thor argued. "Presented with these options, what would you do?"

"I am a Valkyrie. I am expendable by my own admission. If I fall in battle, a new Valkyrie could be chosen and trained," Gairwyn replied. "By contrast, there are very few Asgard left. You have done so much for the people of Cimmeria and many other worlds, yet there is still much work to do. It cannot be done by any other."

"The Tau'ri will fill our role when we are gone."

"They have their own troubles. Despite their progress even they could still benefit from your assistance," Gairwyn stated. She added, "You are concerned about becoming too much like your old adversary."

"I am concerned about the potential pitfalls of the technology. I am concerned of its unforeseen consequences."

"You shall still be Thor, provider of protection and guidance. I am myself partially machine, Supreme Commander," she reminded him. "You are aware of that. It was by your own doing."

"Times were desperate," Thor protested. "We took measures that would never have been taken under normal circumstances."

"Are they not desperate now?"

Again, Thor had no argument.

"I understand your hesitation. But Luthan said it himself, this is the next step. I was fearful when I learned of your true form, and I was fearful when I became a Valkyrie," Gairwyn said softly. "It is merely a machine to extend your life, as my implants directly and indirectly extend my own. Simply a lot more complicated. Thor, you must make this decision with logic, not emotion."

"Your argument is a false equivalence," Thor pointed out.

"If you shall not transfer your mind out of selfishness, then do so out of selflessness," Gairwyn argued. "Even if you will not go through with this for your own people, do it for the younger races that still require the guidance of the Asgard."

* * *

Once he was aboard his flagship, Thor wasted no time before opening a channel to the Asgard High Council on Orilla.

"I have completed my mission," he announced simply.

"What is the result?" Penegal asked, voice raspy. Blotches were breaking out on his grey skin. He did not have long to live. "Have you found a solution?"

"I have found a solution... of sorts," Thor answered. "I am sending the data now."

There was no reply for a moment as Penegal reviewed the information. Finally, he asked, "Will it work?"

"It has worked," Thor replied. The implications of his statement were not lost on most of the councillors.

"We would become machines," Freyr protested. "Is there no other way?"

"There is no other option," the Supreme Commander replied. "This is the only path forward for the Asgard race, and perhaps by extension the best path forward for those that rely on us."

"Do you believe this is the correct course of action, Thor?"

He glanced at Gairwyn before replying. "I do."

"Then we shall continue our existence."

* * *

"So, you're a machine now?"

"Yes."

"You're all machines?"

"Yes."

"Any genocidal thoughts or feelings?"

"No."

"Inexplicable desire to start eating metal?"

"No."

O'Neill raised his hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay, just asking."

"It was not a decision I took lightly," Thor replied from his position on the other side of the General's desk.

The General nodded. "I know it's probably the last thing you wanted to do, but we still need you guys out there in the galaxy. Just think of it as taking one for the team."

"I already do."

O'Neill nodded. "Hey, what's gonna happen to those other Asgard in Pegasus?"

"They will be brought to trial for their crimes," the Asgard replied. "How is SG-1?"

"Disbanded," he replied with a sigh. "Teal'c is running for office on Chulak, Carter's headed to DARPA, Daniel is on a lecture tour, and I have no idea where Vala went."

"I see."

"The guys upstairs want me to put together another team. But I just don't have the heart to start selecting replacements, you know?" O'Neill said. "Anyway, I know you've got important Asgard business to attend do. And I've got important Earth business to attend to. Don't let me keep you."

"I shall not," Thor replied before disappearing in a flash of light.

* * *

I know I'm not the only who asked why the Asgard didn't just go synthetic. I think they definitely could have if they wanted to. Thor's mind had been downloaded into a computer at one point and the crystal tray containing it wasn't that big, so a large computer or conventional android would have been possible. Even a nanite-based body similar to a Replicator in construction probably would have, though that's mostly unfounded conjecture on my part.

So why didn't they? I think they didn't want to. They didn't consider it an acceptable option. Becoming a mechanoid race was tantamount to becoming the enemy they had fought for so long.

It's a rather emotional decision to make for such a supposedly logical race. It wouldn't actually be much of a change for the Asgard. They would simply be transferring into a body made of nanites or circuitry rather than artificial flesh.

I'm aware that the Vanir eventually solve the genetic problem with the help of a formerly-Ascended Asgard post-S5, but I've never read the Legacy novels. I might at some point and I might integrate some elements into SGD going forward, but this is not one of them.


End file.
